ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST >> Wayne Burnes had hoped he could pass on to his children the thrill of climbing Williamson Rock.

Though it is only about an hour away from his Simi Valley home, that may never happen.

Last week, the U.S. Forest Service announced it would close the popular granite outcropping situated in the forest high country for a ninth straight year.

A 1,000-acre area that includes the once-popular climbing rock as well as Little Rock Creek and a 2.5-mile portion of the sinuous Pacific Crest Trail has been closed since December 2005, when his children were ages 3 and 4, he said.

“Now they are in their teens and they haven’t been able to go there,” said Burnes, 53, his voice filled with resignation.

The creek and makeshift trails leading from Angeles Crest Highway to Williamson Rock are home to the mountain yellow legged frog, an endangered species. Because of a lawsuit won by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Forest Service was forced to cordon off the area to protect the frog and its habitat.

Several attempts at a solution have so far failed, leading to year after year of closures and disappointment from the Southern California rock climbing and hiking communities.

U.S. Forest Service Landscape Architect Jose Henriquez holds out a glimmer of hope. The Forest Service has fashioned together a proposal that will manage the frog habitat with new trails and amenities while re-opening the rock to climbers, albeit for only four months a year.

“Compared to the previous times, this is a lot more promising,” Henriquez said. “But it is still a very delicate matter.”

The proposal would keep the granite formation closed from Jan. 1 to Aug. 15 every year, leaving a short climbing window. It also calls for building a 21-foot-long pedestrian bridge over Little Rock Creek to connect hikers to the 2.5-mile section of the legendary Pacific Crest Trail blocked by the closure. New toilets, signage and an information kiosk with maps directing hikers and climbers are also part of the proposal, according to a letter sent to constituent groups signed by Thomas Contreras, supervisor of the Angeles National Forest.

The area will remain closed this year and most likely next year, said Henriquez, as the proposal winds its way toward an environmental analysis and possibly a formal Environmental Impact Statement, a document required by the National Environmental Protection Act.

Cost for such a proposal remains unknown, Henriquez said, as does the funding. The Forest Service is working on a cost analysis. He said the Forest Service is hoping to receive funding and manpower from nonprofit groups, such as the Friends of Williamson Rock and the Pacific Crest Trail Association.

Part of the process, ordered by the courts, includes a biological assessment of the frogs and their habitat, Henriquez said.

Already, the frogs are showing signs of a comeback, he said.

When the USFS shut down the area in 2005, there were five or 10 frogs. Today, biologists count about 150 frogs in the closure area, he said.

However, the impact from future hikers and climbers on the mountain yellow legged frogs “is a concern,” according to Contreras, who wrote: “Recreation activities within the creek habitat may lead to disturbance of egg masses, trampling of individual frogs, capture and handling of tadpoles and adult frogs, and generalized disruption of mating and migration,” he wrote.

In addition, humans who play in the creek could dump trash and human feces, “which also contaminate critical habitat …” he wrote.

Already, the Forest Service has received 25 emailed responses to the 2014 closing and the latest fix. Henriquez expects those numbers to rise between now and the Jan. 24 comment deadline (email to: comments-pacificsouthwest-angeles@fs.fed.us). “There is a huge interest in this,” he said. “It is a very high-profile situation.”

Rock climbers have trekked to the mountain located about equidistant between La Cañada Flintridge and the 15 Freeway since the 1960s, Contreras wrote. It is regarded as a unique outcropping surrounded by majestic beauty and mild temperatures.

Henriquez called the area, roughly between Kratka Ridge and Mt. Williamson and about 2 miles north of Crystal Lake, “the heart of Angeles Crest Highway.” Many call it the one of the most beautiful vistas of the entire high country.

“It is almost like a little piece of Yosemite Valley,” Burnes remembered, after going through some old photographs of he and his wife, Karin, climbing the rock back in 2003. “It is hard granite and within a beautiful setting. It is quiet and remote and yet only an hour from the city.”

Burnes said each year he’s fought the extension of the closure “tooth and nail.” This time, he agrees that portions of the climbing area, such as London Wall, should be permanently closed to protect the frog habitat, even though he said the climbers are not to blame.

“The impact (to the frogs) from the climbers is minimal to none at all,” he said. “Yet I am very environmentally conscious. So closing the areas where the people could run them down is OK. That part of the plan seems pretty good.”

Like many who’ve commented on rock-climbing websites, Burnes said the short window for climbing should be extended. Others, such as William L. Tuck III, wrote that cramming the climbing season between Aug. 15 and the end of December could “cause overuse of the area thus defeating the purpose of protecting the mountain yellow legged frog.”

Henriquez wants to hear both the positive and the criticism.

“We want this project to be as wide open as possible. The goal is to finally get something done, whether it is a permanent closure or we open it to the public. We want the frogs protected. We are trying to find a happy medium,” Henriquez said.

Steve Scauzillo covers environment and transportation for the Southern California News Group. He has won two journalist of the year awards from the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club and is a recipient of the Aldo Leopold Award for Distinguished Editorial Writing on environmental issues. Steve studied biology/chemistry when attending East Meadow High School and Nassau College in New York (he actually loved botany!) and then majored in social ecology at UCI until switching to journalism. He also earned a master's degree in media from Cal State Fullerton. He has been an adjunct professor since 2005. Steve likes to take the train, subway and bicycle – sometimes all three – to assignments and the newsroom. He is married to Karen E. Klein, a former journalist with Los Angeles Daily News, L.A. Times, Bloomberg and the San Fernando Valley Business Journal and now vice president of content management for a bank. They have two grown sons, Andy and Matthew. They live in Pasadena. Steve recently watched all of “Star Trek” the remastered original season one on Amazon, so he has an inner nerd.

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